November 2024

Success Stories Amid Church Decline

Who’s to blame for the decline in church attendance and membership?

The clergy? Lay leaders? Ourselves?

The answer is none of the above, says Bob Smietana, author of “Reorganized Religion: The Reshaping of the American Church and Why it Matters.” The decrease in involvement is part of long-term demographic and cultural changes beyond our control.

But even in this decline, small successes do occur through activities that change people’s lives.

Some takeaways from his Leadership Matters Lecture, hosted by the Damascus Project: After World War II, American culture was like a conveyor to churches, bringing people to the church to be told about American Christianity, “because that’s what good people did.” Today, our job is to show people there may be something they want to be part of, and if they show up it’s a big deal! Then we need to convince them they might want stay. Also, most Americans were Christian during then. Most were white, men were in charge and the nuclear family the center of life. Church attendance was a cultural norm. Now, the US is more racially diverse, more egalitarian, more LGBTQ affirming, more gender-neutral, younger. The largest religious group is the “None’s” - claiming no church affiliation, no denominational beliefs, spiritual but not traditionally religious.

Our postwar churchgoing boom is over. People got old and were replaced by a younger generation, less likely to go to church and having fewer children. Also, moving breaks the habit of churchgoing. A bad church experience leaves you wary, thinking the church doesn’t love you. If it was a good church, you’re looking for it in your new locale. Names may be the same, but the experience can be different.

All church leaders and members need to learn to gather folks together, connect with non-members, to empower each other to do the same. We all need to talk to our neighbors, inviting them to worship.

Just as important, we need to learn to resolve differences, how to belong to each other. If they disagree, they leave. And we need to celebrate our successes.

We are essential to our community for all that we do. We are a place where people can gather for free. We are one place that is meant to be for other people. Relationships are more important than programs.

“The genius of humans is that we’re interdependent. Our Achilles’ heel is that we think we’re not. The need for a community that’s NOT transactional is important. Programs can’t replace that.”

Rev. Howard Hunt